Bellator 83's Eye on Gurgel: 'Talk is cheap, and she came up a few cents short'

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – While the focus has been on the women’s 135-pound division this week after Ronda Rousey was crowned the first-ever UFC women’s champion, Jessica Eye quickly stole back the spotlight for the 125-pounders.

“No matter if you hold a championship belt or supposedly someone says you’re the best, you have to prove it in 15 minutes,” Eye told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) after the win. “You can have a belt. You can say you are. But if you can’t prove it, it doesn’t matter.

“As she always says, talk is cheap. And she came up a few cents short tonight.”

Eye’s 58-second submission win, which aired on MTV2 from Caesars Atlantic City in New Jersey, marked her sixth straight victory and moved her to 9-1 overall. The clash of top-10 flyweights originally was slated to take place in October, but Eye’s foot injury delayed it until this weekend.

Eye wasted little time in the long-brewing grudge match. She dropped Gurgel with an early swarm of punches and then secured a standing arm-triangle choke that left her opponent unconscious. The performance snapped a seven-fight win streak for Gurgel, who returned from a 19-month injury layoff with a decision win over Casey Noland at Bellator 78 in October.

Despite the quick finish, the bout should help generate some interest in both the fighters and the division heading into 2013, when Bellator moves to Spike TV. Bellator Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney has long stated the organization is unlikely to put together another 115-pound tournament, and even Gurgel seems resigned to the fact that she won’t be defending her title anytime soon.

So, both Gurgel and Eye have their eyes set on a likely 125-pound tournament next year, where both could enter the field as early favorites. And with Bellator already hosting a handful of fights in the division and continually seeking out new talent, it’s likely to feature a star-studded field.

To Gurgel, that’s why she’s satisfied fighting Bellator. While some female fighters may be anxiously awaiting a potential move to the UFC, Gurgel hasn’t seen anything yet to indicate the organization’s commitment to women’s MMA goes beyond Rousey.

“I see them building this entire thing around her, so I don’t think they’re going to build a huge division out of it,” she said. “It’s mainly just going to be about Ronda Rousey, and that’s not women’s MMA is about.

“It’s a nice thing that they’re doing it and brought them into the UFC, but they need to do something big with it, I guess.”

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?